It is desirable for mail pieces to be sorted as efficiently and specifically as possible so that time and costs associated with manual sorting can be reduced. A need exists, therefore, for a system that can be used by a large mail processing center, such as a U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center (“P&DC”), which sorts several types of mail pieces, e.g., letters, flats, etc., that it receives from several different sources, e.g., collection mail pieces from carriers, pre-sorted bulk mail pieces from bulk mailers or mail pieces from other P&DC's. A U.S. Postal Service P&DC, for example, may want to be able to process, sort and package mail pieces for delivery to a local associate post office such that the mail pieces are sorted and packaged in a predetermined order such as a carrier route sequence or delivery point sequence.